Empathy
Be me for an evening.
Take this cup of soup
from my hands,
and slip on my old
red shoes.
Send prayers floating
up up to the fading sky,
Watch them drift to the
south with the clouds,
unredeemed.
The hydrangea and peony,
the withering fragrance
of Monday’s roses,
the spade stuck in a
vacant bed of dirt—
silent witnesses
to this nightly occupation,
my solitary journey
from here to just there,
a pacing tiger swishing
at the sunset and its insects,
restless for any promise
in the leaves,
the shadows.
But there is nothing here.
Claire Juno, © 2016
vindicating vashti 